Born to Fly (2023)

Can definitely be watched multiple times, preferably on a big screen

This was so good. China should be very proud of this movie. The cast, direction, editing, music, cinematography was on point. The movie had great pace from the very beginning. I wish I had watched it on the big screen, what great visuals it had.
I could totally see how well they used their budget.

I love that Yibo is making great choices for his projects. He could have easily kept on doing the same kind of roles in dramas and earn a good living but he chose to take on challenges and work with good actors and directors to hone his craft. It's no secret that I watched this movie coz of him and he did not let me down.
If Yibo was a Hollywood actor, all our media would be telling us how a young actor is so talented and has done such a variety of work...There's no need to write how good Hu Jun is, he is a veteran. But, I've never seen Yu Shi before, he was good.

Lei Yu is scared of dogs. Those who know will know :P
Zhang making Lei eject but choosing to stay back is not fictional. There have been many pilots who made sure their plane wouldn't crash on a residential area, they sacrificed their life to protect innocent civilians. I knew he would not make it the moment they showed his family but damn it hurt. The first time Lei ejected was so funny but this one was heartbreaking.
Lei's mother told us how risky this career is by just 1 dialog, you can't fix the plane while it's in the clouds.

One can't pretend that there's no propaganda in the movie. In real world, China intrudes into the air spaces of another country while the movie tells us how they get worried when someone else does the same. Movies from other countries do propaganda as well. So let's not pretend a Chinese movie is doing something new. We ignore or pretend when movies of our countries do it so give leeway to another as well.
Everyone knows what China has done in Sri Lanka, Pakistan and other smaller countries. I'd like to see someone brave enough to make a movie or drama in China that shows the ugly truth. But we know it's not possible in a country that decides what its adult population should watch.

The movie is about test pilots, what they do, their lifestyle and the massive risks they take. The movie successfully shows it to the viewer. If such a story doesn't interest you then don't go complaining about it. The movie delivers what it promised.
Comedy was at the right time and in the right amount. The CGI was incredible. I didn't care about romance coz I was engrossed in the story of test pilots, thankfully the movie didn't make romance as the core.
There aren't many women test pilots in the real world so I was hoping the movie would have gone a different route. It would have been interesting to watch them make changes to the planes to suit women. Maybe another movie which shows the struggles women test pilots face.
I'll definitely watch the movie again. It was totally worth the wait.

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Passion takes flight and soars

This movie is overflowing with heart, passion, and dedication. The unsung people known as test pilots are so under appreciated. Born to Fly highlights their spirit and determination in their chosen profession, taking on risks to ensure their air force have the best possible equipment to go about their duties.

I love how the director tried to keep it as real as possible (from what I heard in interviews), incorporating anecdotes from real test pilots, showing us glimpses and sacrifices of their lives.

The aerial scenes are breathtaking, so vivid and mesmerizing. I also love how the story takes us through the conditioning and training one would go through to even be considered for a test pilot position in China.

Lei Yu is an eager beaver, going through life fueled by his love of the air. He can be spontaneous to a fault however he more than makes up for it with his intelligence, love of problem solving and drive to succeed. Wang Yibo plays Lei Yu to perfection, injecting his brand of 100% dedication to his chosen craft.

I love the camaraderie between the team and personnel, everyone understood their assignment, gave their all.

This movie is well casted, I especially loved Hu Jun’s role as Zhang Ting, he inspires such loyalty.

You will laugh, cry, cheer but most of all, overflow with admiration for a team of dedicated people at the end of this movie.

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Purely a propaganda film...

I watched this movie because I'm a fan of Wang Yibo and of course I had to show my support. I watched it at my local AMC and just returned home to write this review.

I am sadly not a fan of this movie and I might be the minority here. I will admit that the CGI was great and I do think that the action/flight scenes were very well done with the pairing and timing of the music to really keep you on the edge of your seat. Wang Yibo also had some really adorable funny scenes and you will see a few of his rare smiles, however, it really ends there.

There is no actual storyline besides focusing on the testing and training process of test pilots. The "bad guys" are some no-face pilots that went into their airspace for no reason - they sound and resemble stereotypical American jocks (so weird imo). The whole movie just reminded me of something that would be shown to recruit soldiers - being educational and patriotic and with very little entertainment value. Perhaps if they were able to put an actual plot together and if the patriotism was woven in more seamlessly, I would have enjoyed it more.

Moral of the story is, don't eject from a plunging plane or shy away from foreign invasion - even if it means you'll die because you're fighting for your country and for your comrades. They do spin it in a more marketable way though and call it "testing your own limits" (even if it means death).

Sadly, even Yibo's wide range of acting here couldn't convince me to like this movie. While I think Yibo and Hu Jun put on wonderful performances, there was little character development and barely any story buildup. Because of this, the supposedly heartwarming moments fell flat. If you're looking for well fleshed-out characters or a well-developed story, this movie isn't it.

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A thrilling exciting watch

An amazing watch full of emotions and pride it's a story about test pilots and there efforts for there motherland the presentation of the movie is excellent the CGI on point all the shots are great to watch
The story is about the main character Lei Yu his growth how passion and endless effort to make the best stealth fighter WangYibo is natural and effortless as Lei Yu bringing this character to.life making him all passionate and believable Hu Jun Zhang ting is very good very authoritative very brave Zhou dong yu has a short but good supportive role giving Lei Yu some good emotions all other characters played there part well
The narrative is simple and straightforward with enough fun emotions and some heartbreaking scenes all natural and relatable
Recommended to all 👍👍

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Underestimated the importance of pacing and plot building....

I'm not going to complain about acting or CGI here, it didn't fail in those departments, although it didn't wow me either. For me, the reason this movie fell short, and the reason I glazed over at least 20 minutes skipping at different points, was because the movie tried for too much, in too little time.
It aimed too high for emotionalism, sentimentality, failure/success, soldier camaraderie, love, loss, life lessons, moral of a story, rivalry and of course, painting the fighter jets in a flattering light, all in the span of 2 hours. The issue with that is it doesn't work. Movies with that much content and that many characters, have, at bare minimum, sequels, or more commonly now, trilogies and even rarely whole sagas (e.g Fast and Furious) in which they build up their characters (especially their main character/s) and all the relationships around them with feeling and over time.

Even as a fan of WY, I was once again left not actually feeling bad for his character when he went through hardship, especially because he went through so many separate instances of hardship in 40 minutes and then there was no time for character development or feeling to set in before someone (of forced) 'importance' died, and we sat through several minutes of funeral stuff for this guy and then some other stuff, and then time skip, Lei Yu healed and boom, he goes back, says a line, and he's one of the guys and they're all best friends. They hadn't even been much of friends to start with.

Nah, nah. Not for me. I need to actually care about at least ONE character, and I can't do that if a movie shoves ten main characters in my face in 2 hours. Ten main characters in a ten episode long series? Sure, it can be done. Ten main characters in a movie or book franchise spanning several installations? Yep. But in 2 hours? Nope.
Best to keep it tidy, have at most 2 main characters, some support roles, and easy on the 'big moving moments' so they actually have some impact. Anyway;

THE (generally) GOOD:
- I don't personally care for CGI being perfect, as long as it's watchable, this was watchable.
- Acting was fine, although the scenes went by far too quickly to really allow any acting to resonate or stand out.
- There was some humor here and there, which landed nicely, except again, went by too fast, lost in the scenes changing to accommodate all the stuff going on.
- I liked the bird strike scene, it was probably the high point of the movie for me if I have to choose one.

THE (generally) BAD:
- Unmemorable movie over all. I ended up skipping the filler between scenes and even the last fighting scene, I didn't care about a single character and I wouldn't recc this to anyone. Not even Top Gun or Army movie fans.
- I don't think this movie actually had a plot, or if it did, it was weak sauce. Lost in translation, too much excess dialogue about stuff and things that I barely remember.
- Quite a few parallels to the latest Top Gun movie, which achieved a high pay off in 2 hours, but lets not forget, it's the second film released as a highly anticipated sequel to a movie that is a long standing classic and Maverick is an established, well liked character. Lei Yu, with so many other 'mains' in need of screen time and attention, was barely allowed to be interesting.

Nothing ugly here, but nothing worth reccing either. As a person who enjoys military theme movies, this wasn't particularly entertaining. I haven't fallen asleep during a movie since Blade Runner 2017, but this movie had me feeling sleepy.

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takes the phrase “leave you on the edge of your seat” to new heights (haha, flight pun)

The story was not only thrilling, it was surprisingly very moving as well. The actors did great (I’m an Yibo fan and I’m trying to be unbiased here, but he did so well! Everyone did!). The cgi/action scenes were all very nicely done, and I felt like they never gave us time to breathe before throwing us into another thrilling flight scene. Their fear, urgency, camaraderie, pride; all these felt very real.

I never heard of test pilots before this, so I thought how refreshing and touching it was to be able to watch a version of their stories. I laughed, I cried…

It was a great movie. That’s what it is.

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Not terrible, just average

This was your average military movie. There is a mentor, an under dog, a rival, mentor dies, rivals become buddies, and so on. Movie wasn't terrible, just not memorable enough for a second watch. Acting was fine.

The okay:
1. Acting
2. sentimental moments between a few characters
3. CGI was ok
4. musical score and official sound track
5. fighter jet flying scenes

The bad:
1. very little character development
2. supporting cast is not memorable, i can only recall 3 character names from the movie
3. WYB's character did not need a love interest, but I guess the producers needed to insert a few females into the movie
4. no real connection between WYB's character and his parents

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He is Born To Fly

Born To Fly

This is heart warming movie which is revealing test pilots life and difficulties.
CGI effects and sound effects are perfectly presented in this movie.
The first twenty minutes of movie is a bit documentary style but which is better in the rest of movie. Overall script and plot is well-written.

Honestly, I am afraid of being documentary and propaganda movie but the final result is not l think. It is purely focused on test pilots life, training period difficulties, self-awareness of ability in “lei yu” character , how to improve in their aviation system of fighter Jet and how they sacrifice their life to test & improve their aviation system.

I got new knowledges of aviation system and more understanding of test pilots sacrificed. This made me heart-touching and heartbroken.

I really like and enjoy romance of main character Lei Yu and his crush doctor (special leading actress). I really want to see more romance and romantic scenes between them which will be better for movie.

Main lead Actor Wang YIBO’s acting is already approved in Hidden Blade. He is so fit in his character and delivered “Lei Yu” character perfectly and smoothly with his true feelings in this movie 🍿.

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Boring

I am a big fan of military dramas/movies and I really liked the Chinese military movie 'The Eight Hundred'. Hence, I felt that this movie would be worth a shot. WRONG!!! Although the idea of a movie centring around test pilots is novel and refreshing, the execution was below average.
The pace of the movie could be faster. There were many scenes that I felt were redundant or overly propagandistic and were of no help in moving the story forward. These redundant scenes only made the movie seem draggy and boring. 20 minutes into the movie and a man sitting a row behind me in the movie theatre was already snoring in his seat. I was also starting to get a little fidgety in my seat but decided to persevere thinking that the movie would get better. ANOTHER WRONG!!! The CGI in the movie was just giving me 2000s (or even earlier) Hollywood CGI vibes - looks fake and hilarious, especially when I had just watched Topgun Maverick so there was naturally some comparison going on in my brain. Okay, but the bad CGI was not as bad as how fake or unprofessional some scenes looked. There was a scene where a flock of birds crashed into the plane of the ML and Second ML. While the SML had to be stretchered down the plane looking battered, the ML walked out looking almost completely unscathed - no cuts, no bruises, nothing. There was also a scene where a metal pole stabbed through the ML's chest like a skewered kebab and borderline cookie-cuttered his chest. But in the next couple of scenes featuring the ML, the wound on his chest has completely healed, not even a scab.
1) The movie would have been more exciting if there were an antagonist or antagonists, rather than having some English-speaking faceless pilot as the 'enemy'.
2) The propaganda could be better incorporated into the movie plot
3) The CGI quality was not able to 'carry' the supposed high-tech and advanced air force scenes.

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Pleasantly surprised!

I am an avid watcher of military movies/dramas and also quite an aviation enthusiast, so when Yibo was rumoured to be starring in this movie, i was very looking forward to it. However, life has been quite busy and I forgot about it but suddenly this movie (and full version at that too!) pop up on my YT homepage!

I was pleasantly surprised by it to be quite honest. While watching the trailer quite some time ago, most of the comments on youtube was how it was a chinese remake of topgun (having seen the trailer around TG Maverick release date). However, it was nice to see that they have gone quite a different route with this. I like how they pressed on no matter how brilliant a fighter pilot is on the frontline, there are actually much sacrifice and blood goes behind the scene to deliver the aircraft at its best.

What i like:
-Commander Zhang was such a leader. He nurtures and build all these heroes bit by bit.
-Yibo was in his element. His acting is mature and almost natural in his fighter pilot role
-there are many themes that are carried out brilliantly throughout the movie. Some of them are (of course!) patriotism, maturity comes after you are humbled by failure, wingmanship, and of course, sacrifice! Theres also a little bit of a love plotline, and i like that they are very softly integrated into the storyline. The FL and Yibo’s love story was professional at its best, between 2 busy officers who are on the path towards a greater goal, but found the understanding in the middle nevertheless.
- mygod, even though it was only about 1 and 1/2 hours in, the movie can already built up quite a story behind Commander Zhang, that when he sacrificed himself for the mission, i was bawling my eyes out in solidarity with the soldiers/engineers working under his command and with him.
-the final flight test was such a drama. I was gripping my duvet intermittently in anxiety trying to will them back home. Lol
-the recording at the end of the movie was so heartbreaking but the pilot’s voice sounded so calm honestly *criesabucket
-the scene where yibo and the team make a fly by/over show above Commander Zhang’s son’s game was chef kiss. Showed such a camaraderie between the team and their appreciation for their mentor’s sacrifice.

What i have problem with:
-the opening and closing fight scenes are so fast forwardy, making them seem quite unnatural and video game-like. My expectation honestly was at 30% that this will be a good movie seeing the first fight scene. Im glad that the subsequent story after that redeemed back my attention and expectation.


All in all, for such a short movie, it was quite gripping and intense. Highly recommended watch.

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